A Disclaimer of Sorts

I just wanted to make a quick clarification about something I said in yesterday’s blog titled:  Have it Your Way, I made a comment about one of my supervisors stating, “the one supervisor chick scares me a little. She is nice and all, but she just has a really strict demeanor about her.” I want to make a clarification due to in today’s world people are losing their jobs over blog, twitter, and facebook posts and sometimes they are what they feel in their heart or it just might be that it came out in the wrong way, therefore I am making a clarification so it comes out in the right way. I stated that she is nice and she really is a nice lady and has been nothing, but nice to me. I said that she scares me, but not in a negative way. Her strict demeanor is a positive attribute and I applaud her for being in a setting where she most likely has made friends, but she keeps it strictly professional and makes sure that everything is done the way it is supposed to be done. It is easy to be in charge on a job as a woman and be strict on your employees and be given the title of “bitch”, but she has been able to be strict without over exaggerating her position and she is nice. She is a bit scary in that when she is around even though she is nice you know that she means business and your work should be done the way it is to be done. I personally really do like her and it made me smile today when she mentioned how hard I have been working in only my 3 days. I had a previous jobs a few years ago and one supervisor girl was scary in the sense in that she truthfully earned the “bitch” title in that she was strict and to a way where it seemed like she went beyond out of her way to be so overbearing.

In conclusion I wanted to say that a woman can be stern and strict without being a “bitch” if she does not go beyond out of her way to just be overbearing on people and is just strict the way it needs to be and still be kind. I just wanted to clarify that I really do like my supervisor and even though I said she was a little scary I think that if she wasn’t that way maybe I wouldn’t work as hard as I have been working and I appreciate her stern manner and I appreciate that she is also quite nice.

...I kind of feel like I rambled on a bit towards the end, but I think I got my point across that I like the supervisor lady and I just wanted to be clear on my thoughts and not have my previous statement taken the wrong way. 

Have it Your Way...

Yesterday was my first day at my new job. I am working at a Burger King on the Air Force Base. It obviously isn’t a glamorous job at all. I can’t say I love it, but at the same time I can’t exactly say I hate it. This job is purely for the $$$ and I am doing dollar signs because I am making that dollars not euros since it is an American base.  On base they use US Dollars and some places like the Burger King will accept Euro, but they give the change back in dollars. Everyone at work seems pretty nice; the one supervisor chick scares me a little. She is nice and all, but she just has a really strict demeanor about her. A couple of my co-workers are like me; they met a Belgian person online and ended up coming to Belgium to be with them. Overall the job really is just okay. I of course started at the bottom and therefore I get to be the person to get the trays, clean the trays, and take out the trash…that kind of stuff. Driving to work is okay, it only takes me 25 minutes to get to work and there is never really traffic on the road I take.

            I also took time after work to check out one of my favorite benefits and that is shopping at the commissary which is AMAZING! After being in Belgium so long you nearly forget the wonders of an American grocery store. I walked into the commissary and there everything was, the things I love from back home. I of course had to buy things like a 2 liter bottle of Root Beer (which is not sold in Europe because Europeans don’t like the taste. They think it taste like medicine.), crystal light, peanut freaking butter (Jif of course) with Smuckers jam (which Oli calls Smugglers), and a few other things that I felt like I just had to buy. The prices are also GREAT!

           

            The job also really pushed me to work towards being healthier, working out, and trying to drop some more weight. I had to buy a shirt in the store because I couldn’t fit any of the uniform shirts that they had on site and they are ordering more in a larger size so I could have an official shirt. Kind of lame :(. I also had to hem my pants because they were actually too long on me and yesterday I was stepping on them. I am happy that I am working the max number of hours next week so that means more $$$ in my pocket, but I work a lot and I don’t get a day off until Monday which means I won’t get much time with Oli over the weekend. Oh well we are both benefiting from my long hours so we must endure it.

            Off to bed for me…I have work in the morning…at Burger King, "Have it Your Way!"

A Late Night Attack and some good stuff

I will get to the exciting stuff later, well actually everything is exciting. I will start with going to Lille, France for the flea market. My suggestion is that if you can deal with millions of people you would enjoy it. I enjoy going to flea markets, concerts, etc, but when there is something like 2 million people it just isn’t my cup of tea. I am not a person to deal with lots of people which is why back home in the US I would do my best to avoid places like Walmart on the 1^st and the 15^th. One could barely walk around there were so many people. It took us seriously 15 minutes to walk a short block. We drove to a metro station on the outside of town and caught the metro into the center of crazy. Due to the fact that it was a very hot day and we could barely move outside we decided to go inside of a bookstore where we spent a lot of time and I left with 3 French cookbooks. After cookbooks we decided to find a place to eat and of course Oli wanted mussels which is a big part of the flea market because the restaurants compete to get the largest pile of empty shells outside. I enjoyed a steak and fries while Oli chowed down on mussels. After, we fought through the crazy crowd to get to the crowded metro. On the way home we were listening to the radio and the news flash said because a huge storm was coming they were evacuating the flea market, we had left just in time. The next morning I baked a beautiful cake for my mother-in-law since it was her birthday and I gave her one of the cookbooks that I bought in Lille.

One night early this week Oli and I had just settled into bed and we were both about to drift to sleep when Oli starts screaming and he turns on the light. There is a HUGE black spider in the bed with us. It apparently had fallen on Oli’s head. Oli tells me that the spider is now playing dead and that I should watch it so he could get paper towel. I saw a scenario playing in my mind of the spider moving while Oli was away so I immediately refused and decided that I would get the paper towel. I know if I had been in the room alone with it I would scream until everyone in our apartment building was awake. I went and got what we needed and when I got back the sucker then decides to get up and move, Oli killed it after I screamed, “Kill it! Kill it!” a few times.

So more good stuff, yesterday I went to Chievres Air Base to fill out paperwork for my new job as a Food Service Worker with AAFES. My HR rep took me to SHAPE for my first time there to get my United States ID card so I am allowed on the base. The only issue I have is because I applied for a Belgian ID as a foreign resident I cannot get a card to be allowed on SHAPE only Chievres…oh well. I then met my supervisor and got my work uniform. I officially start work on Tuesday. So far I am loving the benefits of my job that include shopping on base at the commissary which is cheaper because everything is apparently in US dollars and also I have a APO mailbox on base which means I can order things online from stores at home like Walmart and Target that don’t normally ship internationally, but will ship to APOs. Next week I will be making money! Oli and I have been talking about our finance plans with the fact that I will be working and things are looking good including the fact that I can save towards playing off my student loan. The countdown until Tuesday is on! Now Oli and I head out to get fries for dinner.

Things are happening fast

So I actually wasn’t planning on blogging again until next week, but something exciting happened yesterday. I got a call back from the guy about the job on the base and amazingly my Background Check came back in just a day and so he emailed me the link to my paperwork like my W-2 form and all that jazz. I get to go to base for the first time on Wednesday and technically that will be my first day of work and I will even get paid for Wednesday. I am so stoked to have a job, it is not the most glamorous job like I was expecting, but none the less it is an actual job where I will be making actual money.

This weekend Oli and I are actually going to France. In Lille, France there is a flea market and it is supposed to be the largest in Europe. It only happened for 2 days in September every year so we decided to give it a try. From where we live it will only be about a 45 minute drive. I am excited to see what kinds of things we can find especially since the move into the house maybe coming up.  Things are happening fast and it is a good thing.

Here is a link so you can learn more about the flea market. If you are in this region of Europe you should check it out... http://www.lilletourisme.com/cultural_events_lille-1-0-98-gb.html